Pink and Red
by Poodernite
Summary: A short AU ficlet. Rory and Jess are in fourth grade. It's valentine's day in elementary school. Literati, enjoy.


Alternate Universe Fiction- Jess has lived in Stars Hollow with Luke since he was a baby.  Rory and Jess have grown up together and been forced together by Luke and Lorelai.  Rory and Jess are in Elementary School. 4th grade. One parter.

A/N: Just a little Valentine's Day story.  I wanted to write something for the occasion.  I would love to hear what you think of the story.  Enjoy!

Pink and Red

Jess comes up from behind Rory and pulls out a hair tie from one of her pigtails.

Rory whines, "_Jess_!"

Jess mocks, "_Rory_!"

Rory rolls her eyes and doesn't say anything.  She instead worries about putting her hair back up, which of course she can't do as well as her mom can.  Now her pigtails are going to look gross all day.

Jess continues since she isn't talking, "Stop hogging the glue."                                                    

Rory looks back and stares at him.  "What?"

"I need the glue."

"Why?"

"Well Rory, I need to get these two pieces of paper to stick together, and I heard somewhere that _glue_ will do the trick."

Lane, who is sitting next to Rory jumps in, "Jess, everybody got a glue stick.  What happened to yours?"

"It broke"

"You're dumb."

"Thank you." Jess grabs her glue stick, "thanks again."

Both girls roll their eyes.

"He's so annoying.  Why does he always talk to me?" Rory asks Lane.

"I don't know, I'm sorry."

"It's ok.  I really like your bag."

Rory and Lane continue decorating their Valentine's Day bag.  This is their "mailbox" for all their cards and candy on Valentine's Day.  Today everybody gets a list of all the students they _have_ to give Valentine's to.  Everybody, including Jess.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

That afternoon, Rory sits down at her kitchen table with her box of Disney Princess Valentine's and her bags of suckers and conversation hearts.  She takes out her list of her classmates and her colored pens.  She starts to write her name on all the valentines and then write their name on the envelope and gives them some conversation hearts and a sucker.  

Rory does all the boys first.  She starts at the top with Sean Anderson.  She makes sure to write "From, Rory" not "Love, Rory" on the platonic Valentines, and carefully chooses conversation hearts with no romantic implication.

She reaches Ryan Larson and finishes his card when her mom places a bowl of popcorn and some juice in front of her.  They take a break and watch some TV.

In a half an hour she continues assembling her Valentines.  She decides to start at the bottom of the list and continues upwards for a few minutes.  She finishes Thomas Neilson and sees the next name, Jess Mariano, her heartbeat gets faster and she can feel her face reddening, thank goodness her mother wasn't in the room to notice her crush on a boy.  Rory is too shy to tell a boy that she likes him.  She does carefully choose his Valentine that reads, "You already are Prince Charming, will you be my Valentine?" and printed as neatly as she could, "Love, Rory."  Every candy she gave him said, "Be mine."  She figures he may think it is just coincidence or he could read something into it if he is looking for it.  

She finishes the girls with the left over valentines and candies.

She still has a couple of days before Valentine's Day.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

At Luke's the next morning, Rory and Lorelai sit at a table waiting their food.  Luke brings three plates of pancakes.  

He motions for Jess to sit down with the two girls.  Lorelai nudges Rory.

"Hi, Jess." She forces.

Luke looks at Jess, "Hi Rory, Hi Miss Gilmore," equally as forced.

They all eat their pancakes.  Rory starts to make conversation.  

"Isn't it annoying when Danny Peterson and Justin Brock get the handball court for themselves all recess and don't let anyone else play?  They need to learn to share."

"yeah," Jess seems uninterested. 

They finish their breakfast and Rory and Jess stand up and put their backpacks on.   

"Do you guys want us to walk you to school?" Lorelai asks Jess and Rory.

"No thanks Mom, bye."  Rory gives her a hug.  

"Ok you two, stay together.  You should be able to reach out and hold hands the whole way there!" Lorelai teased.

"Lets go," Rory says dryly to Jess.

They start walking the two blocks to school and Jess reaches out and grabs Rory's hand.

"What are you doing?" Rory asks annoyed.

"Sorry," he releases his grip on her, "just checking."

Rory starts to walk faster.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Rory is trying to pay attention closely to her teacher's review on the cursive alphabet.

Jess pokes Rory in the back with his pen.

Rory ignores him and continues writing.

He pokes her again, gasps and starts rubbing the spot on her back.

She sighs, turns around to face him, and glares at him.

"Sorry Rory, it was just a little bit of pen."  Jess says innocently.

Rory turns back around.  'note to self- ask Lane to check for pen on me.'

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Valentine's Day- Stars Hollow Elementary School

The teacher announces that just for fun, the class is going to do a Valentine's Day themed color-by-number.  Jess groans and Rory whispers shut up.

Mrs. Lambert passes out the coloring sheet and a box of crayons to each kid.

"Mrs. Lambert, I don't have a red or a pink crayon in my box!"

"Me neither!"

"Yeah!"

Rory looks over at Jess who is at the pencil sharpener smirking to himself.  Rory slips out of her seat and into Jess's.  She lifts the top of his desk and finds a pencil box and opens it to find 30 pink and 30 red crayons.  

At this point all the kids are freaking out and refusing to use other colors to complete the worksheet.

"How can we color cupid and the hearts without red or pink!?!"

 Jess stands over Rory and watches her smile at the havoc he has caused, shut the box, and get back in her own seat.  She is beginning to understand him. 

Mrs. Lambert makes an announcement, "Ok, lets all take out our valentines out and distribute them to the class.  Please take a seat when you have 'mailed' all your valentines to your classmates."

The class clumps together with noisy talking and gentle pushing until each person has sat down.  Mrs. Lambert looks in the bags and calls Jess up, she points to Rory's bag and he goes back to his seat and grabs another muffin to place in Rory's bag.  (the muffins were quite obviously sent by Luke, he never would buy Jess and his peers chocolate, or any kind of candy.)  Rory witnesses that Jess is forced to put a muffin in her bag and becomes sad.  He didn't even want to give her one of the treats that he gave the loud kid and the girl with the huge teeth.  Rory decides that it's okay if Jess doesn't like her; she has time to find the man she is going to marry.

Mrs. Lambert announces that each person can take the bag on his or her way out.  When the bell rings everybody retrieves their bags and exits the class.  Rory and Jess usually walk home together but he seems eager to leave, he throws a crumpled up paper at her and storms out.  She begins to walk out of the classroom and reads the note, "Meet me at the handball court."  Rory follows the instruction of the note and reaches the handball court and sees Jess sitting down leaning on the court reading, Wayside School is Falling Down.  She sits down next to her and he hands her Sideway Stories from Wayside School.  She begins to read, this book always makes her laugh.

While they are both reading, Jess reaches into his backpack and pulls an envelope out and drops it at Rory's feet.  She looks up at it and realizes that it is the valentine she gave to him.  She stands up embarrassed, thinking he is trying to give it back to her.  Jess picks it up and hands it to her again, "here, read it."  This time Rory opens it to see what is inside, but is prepared to run.  Underneath the card reading "will you be my valentine."  Jess simply wrote "Yes."  Jess reaches in his backpack and pulls out a cupcake.  He hands it to Rory.  

"Thank you."

"It's not a cupcake, I just put some frosting on one of the muffins. I know it's not much, but."

"It's perfect. I've never had a valentine."

"Me neither."

Rory smiles at Jess and Jess looks away.  Rory takes a step closer and another and places a kiss on Jess's cheek, turning it a fiery red.  Rory begins to blush as well and runs away.  She does look back just long enough to say, "Happy Valentine's Day."

He runs after her and takes her hand in his.  "There, that should make Lorelai happy."

Rory and Jess walk to the dinner, Rory licking the frosting off her frosted muffin, and both kids smiling to themselves. 

"Happy Valentine's Day, Rory."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Thanks for taking the time to read my story!


End file.
